Simulator gets to the bottom of trough-led tsunamis

A TOOL that is the first to simulate a particular type of tsunami could improve our understanding of the devastating waves.

With the help of piston-based simulators, researchers had been able to recreate so-called crest-led waves, where the wave peak hits the shore with no warning. But until now they had been unable to simulate a trough-led wave where water drains from the beaches first, such as the one that hit Thailand in 2004.

Tiziana Rossetto, a geological engineer at University College London, and colleagues, have devised a water tank that can simulate trough-led waves. The pneumatic system does so by quickly sucking up water to form a watery trough that moves along the wave tank. The team aims to use the simulator to study the destructive power of such waves.

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